With great joy, we are bringing out our new
publication ‘A Textbook of Yoga’ by Worshipful Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj.
The book comprises Sri Swamiji Maharaj’s illuminating discourses addressed to
the students of the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy course held from March to May in
1991.

As these lectures were meant for the students who had
come to the Ashram for the first time, Sri Swamiji Maharaj, out of great
compassion, lucidly explained what yoga is and why it is necessary, what the
Ultimate Reality is, and how to practise meditation in order to realise It.

Thus, this book becomes a valuable guide for all those
with no prior exposure to yoga philosophy and practice, to be introduced to yoga
from a philosophical and practical point of view, and then to carry on the
practice in their day-to-day lives.

THE TRUE NATURE OF OUR EXISTENCE

Philosophy is said to be the investigation into the
causes of phenomena which are around us, and in which we are also involved. We
see things happening, events taking place, but mostly we do not know why they
occur at all. We can observe winds blowing, rain falling, the sun getting hot,
etc., as a routine affair in our daily lives, but many of us will not be able to
explain why the winds should blow. Why should it rain at a particular time? Why
is the sun hot or cold, as the case may be? Why are things what they are?
Questions of this kind have often evoked no proper answer. Many a time we find
ourselves helpless in knowing what is happening at all in this world, and why we
are what we are.

The only thing that seems to be impinging upon us and
has a direct effect upon our lives is a series of troubles, responsibilities,
difficulties, problems and the like, which we confront every day. Even if we are
daily confronting problems, responsibilities and troubles, many of us, educated
though we may be, may not know what our problems are. People many a time
complain of difficulties in life, but if we ask them to make a list of all their
difficulties, they will not be able to make a list. There is a chaos even in
thinking about one’s daily confrontations. "What are your problems, sir, about
which you are daily complaining? Tell me all your problems. How many are they?"
It will be very difficult to enumerate these problems. Even those problems which
we are facing daily with open eyes do not seem to be very clear to our minds.

Our ancient seers and masters have boiled down all
these problems, or confrontations, in life into three categories: troubles that
arise from within our own selves, troubles that arise from people and living
beings outside, and troubles that arise from sources which are usually called
celestial in their nature, such as cataclysms, drought, earthquakes and
thunderstorms. By ‘celestial’, we do not mean actually coming from the gods in
heaven, but coming from that which is above our normal ken of operations.

Worshipful Sri Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj took birth
on the 25th of April, 1922, in Puttur, Karnataka, as the eldest child in a
highly religious and orthodox Brahmin family well versed in Sanskrit, and was
named Subbaraya. Reading from the Srimad Bhagavata that Lord Narayana lives in
sacred Badrinath Dham, the young boy believed it literally and entertained a
secret pious wish to go to the Himalayas, where Badrinath is located, and see
the Lord there.

Swamiji arrived in Rishikesh in the summer of 1944.
When he met Swami Sivananda and fell prostrate before him, the saint said: "Stay
here till death. I will make kings and ministers fall at your feet." Swami
Sivananda initiated young Subbaraya into the holy order of Sannyasa on the
sacred day of Makar Sankranti, the 14th of January, 1946, and he was named Swami
Krishnananda.

In 1957 Swamiji became the Secretary especially
concerned with the management of finance, which continued until 1961 when Sri
Gurudev nominated him as General Secretary of the Divine Life Society, which
position he held until 2001.

Swami Krishnananda was a master of practically every
system of Indian thought and Western philosophy. "Many Sankaras are rolled into
one Krishnananda," said Sri Gurudev. Swami Krishnananda, the embodiment of
Bhagavan Sri Krishna, lived in the state of God-consciousness and guided
countless seekers along the path of Self-realisation. Swamiji attained
Mahasamadhi on the 23rd of November, 2001.